After never really being in Friday night's loss at Maine, the University of Massachusetts hockey team bounced back and controlled Saturday's rematch from the outset at Alfond Arena.

The Minutemen upset the No. 11-ranked Black Bears, 4-1, giving their hopes of making the eight-team Hockey East Tournament a considerable boost.

The win combined with Northeastern's tie with Providence, left UMass (11-14-5) and NU tied for eighth place at 7-12-4 in Hockey East play. Both teams have four games left.

UMass (11-14-5, 7-12-4 HE) hosts seventh-place New Hampshire Friday and Saturday before closing the season with a home and home series with Merrimack, March 2-3.

After playing Maine, the Minutemen will now be rooting for the Black Bears, who play two games at Northeastern this weekend. The Huskies close their season with a home-and-home series with Boston University.

UMass and Northeastern split their regular season series, 1-1-1 so if they finish with the same number of points, the deadlock would be broken by tiebreakers that will be affected by the remaining two weekends.

Steven Guzzo put the Minutemen ahead of Maine, 51 seconds into the game on an unassisted goal. Michael Pereira stretched that edge to 2-0 just before the midway point of the second period on the power play.

After Maine s(18-10-3, 13-9-2 HE) cored 30 seconds into the third period, Rocco Carzo and Eric Filiou each scored to help UMass pull away.

Freshman Kevin Boyle made 21 saves for UMass.

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